OK, so as I threatened hinted at earlier today, I've got a Hasegawa 1:32 Ki-61 'Tony' and by gum I'm gonna build it. Cue the de rigeur shot of the box:

And the reference material I picked up for the occasion:

And what I hope will be the only aftermarket I purchase for this build:

The seatbelts look impressive, but they've got me worried because you only get a lap belt and at least one Ki-61 build I've seen shows a shoulder harness as well, which doesn't come with this set. I'm still trying to ascertain if I have to add one, but if anyone knows please let me know.

The Kagero book indicates that Brown flew a captured Tony in San Diego after the war, possibly the one captured by the Marines on Okinawa. If that was the case, it may well also have sported its distinctive red, white & blue paint job applied shortly after capture. I'd really rather do an example still in Japanese service, so this model won't be living up to the spirit of this group build 100% but I hope I can do something pretty neat anyway.

The cockpit is still under assembly, but once I start showing some paint there will be photos.

"One of the serious problems in planning against Canadian doctrine is that the Canadians do not read their manuals, nor do they feel any obligations to follow their doctrine." - excerpt from Soviet Army publication, date unknown.

"One of the serious problems in planning against Canadian doctrine is that the Canadians do not read their manuals, nor do they feel any obligations to follow their doctrine." - excerpt from Soviet Army publication, date unknown.

Dang!! Did you just get that from Wheels and Wings? Had my eye on it!! Seems to be a real popular kit here now. Looking forward to the in progress build.

Don

Indeed, I picked it up during their big sale a couple of weeks ago. And you're right, it was your build, Hubert's, and Kevin's resurrected build all happening in succession that put the bug in my ear to try this one out. I also saved a bunch of in-progress pics of from Hyperscale once of Kobayashi's plane as done by either Bazyli Briks or Ralph Riese (sorry, I can't remember whom, now) which are pretty inspiring too.

"One of the serious problems in planning against Canadian doctrine is that the Canadians do not read their manuals, nor do they feel any obligations to follow their doctrine." - excerpt from Soviet Army publication, date unknown.

Definitely on my "want" list. In your opinion, is it a worthwhile book?

It's got a lot of photos and info; scale drawings in 1:72, 1:48, and 1:32, brief unit histories, production histories, some very nicely done colour profiles, etc. I picked it up to get a good starting point for info because before this I knew absolutely nothing about this plane (ergo, I can't comment as to the accuracy of the info in the book), and I'm still working my way through it. I had hoped for more of an Aero Detail kind of tract, with more detail photos inside (not that there's much in the way of surviving Tonys around any more...), but I don't regret buying the book as I'll understand the differences between the Ki-61-I 'hei', 'tei', and 'otsu' variants before too long.

"One of the serious problems in planning against Canadian doctrine is that the Canadians do not read their manuals, nor do they feel any obligations to follow their doctrine." - excerpt from Soviet Army publication, date unknown.

"One of the serious problems in planning against Canadian doctrine is that the Canadians do not read their manuals, nor do they feel any obligations to follow their doctrine." - excerpt from Soviet Army publication, date unknown.

Thanks to everyone for the best wishes so far on this project, now on to some work...

I've hollowed out one of the exhaust assemblies, and the results are as follows:

With the ol' Mk.Ib "Assembly: Ball, Eye" at a minimum of 12"/300mm distance it looks pretty good to me. Not perfect, but pretty good. The closer you get, the further from perfect it gets, but I can live with it. However, I'd like to get better at this sort of thing, so with Plan B being the purchase of a set of Quickboost exhausts, I'd like to invite anyone with a good set of skills to share their closely-guarded trade secrets tips & hints.

Essentially, I drilled two holes into each exhaust with a small-diameter drill bit held with a jeweler's vice and then carved out the rest with a low-RPM, battery-powered variation on a Dremel (can't remember what it's called, but it was marketed about 12 years ago by MMP). This isn't foolproof, but with some more practice I'll get better at it. With some black paint inside each wee depression and the rest of each stack painted suitably rusty I think it'll look the business...

So anyway, if anyone is quietly asking "why are you doing it that way when you can do it this way?" please let me know, I'm not defensive about this and this isn't some kind of passive-aggressive ambush. I'm here to learn.

"One of the serious problems in planning against Canadian doctrine is that the Canadians do not read their manuals, nor do they feel any obligations to follow their doctrine." - excerpt from Soviet Army publication, date unknown.